The family of a mother of two who was murdered at her home a fortnight ago have issued a fresh appeal for members of the public to assist gardaí in any way they can to catch the killer.
Gardaí in Balbriggan launched a murder investigation after the body of Rachel O'Reilly was found at her home at Baldarragh, near Naul village, Co Dublin, on October 4th.
She was found in a bedroom of the house by her mother, Mrs Rose Callely, who went to her daughter's home after Ms O'Reilly (30) failed to collect one of her two children from creche.
A post-mortem indicated that she had received several blows to the head with a blunt instrument. Gardaí have not yet recovered the murder weapon and are not following any definite lines of inquiry.
There were no signs of a struggle between Ms O'Reilly and her attacker and while the house had been disturbed, indicating a possible break-in, the dead woman's family say they believe this may have been staged and that Rachel was probably killed by somebody known to her.
Ms O'Reilly's husband, Mr Joe O'Reilly, said towels were missing from the house, which he believed may have been used by the attacker to clean away blood. Mr O'Reilly fears the killer may strike again if he is not caught.
"Rachel was not stupid. If she'd walked in on a burglary. . . she would have walked right out of the house and called someone," he told RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday.
"Even what we can gather has been taken so far doesn't justify, not that anything can justify, what happened. It just doesn't fit. Somebody somewhere has to have seen something."
Mr O'Reilly said his wife may have disturbed somebody at the house that she and her family would recognise.
He said he believes the killer may have killed his wife in order to protect his identity. Because of this, other people known to the family would know the identity of the killer.
